Page 58 of Fallout

They’d seen the accuracy with which he placed his shots.

It wasn’t worth anyone’s life.

God, we need Your wisdom.There were so many things to pray for, but it was also time to act. If God guided them, she would step forward with the confidence that He would see them through what happened next. Destiny had done that in going to Africa. So far it seemed to have cost her more than she gained, but when her baby came in a few months, maybe she would feel differently.

Which made her realize something.

As soon as Clare had her baby, she was going to want an update.

Destiny needed to have something to tell her. Like a plan. The PD was working on April and getting information from her. Vanguard could take a different angle.

She said, “We need a way to contact him. We can tell him we want to negotiate.”

“Are you ready for that?”

“The Famous Ones are.” Destiny would be counting on those women to save all their lives.

Simon said, “Huh. Looks like the PD came up empty. April was arraigned and released pending a court date.”

“She’s out on the street?”

“I’ll track her down and send it to Jasper.”

TWENTY-FIVE

April shivered, but at least she was alive, even if she was freezing. Benson on a weekday, downtown during working hours, meant traffic constantly flowing on both sides. The lunch rush of office workers lined up out the door of that café on the corner.

The one where the barista messed up her coffee order and didn’t even care. When she’d explained the problem with nut flavoring—the one that would kill her—he’d poured her drink into the sink and refused to make her a new one. They’d never refunded her money, either.

As if she’d go there to beg for a sandwich despite the fact she was starving as well as freezing. She would rather die.

Except that felt far too much like a terrible foreknowledge.

She’d ditched her phone and the jacket with the GPS tracker inside hours ago. No one could find her. As soon as she’d left the courthouse, she’d done what she needed to get gone. To be free. All she had to do was reach her gym locker. Everyone looking for her would assume she’d go home or to the electronics store where she worked.

No one knew about the gym. Or her motel room. Or the two other places she’d left caches. A flash drive here. The account number to a bank there.

April had so many secrets that even she had forgotten some of them.

For sure, no one could find her.

She used the front door of the gym and waved at the receptionist. Months ago, she’d come here and put her padlock on the unit she wanted to keep. Inside, she had ten thousand in cash, two changes of clothes, shoes, and an unregistered phone.

Once she’d cleaned it out, she could head to the bus station.

Get out of Benson.

Out of Washington.

Go somewhere warmer, like Vegas or even as far as Phoenix. Warm sounded good right about now. When the summer came, she could go northeast. Keep moving. Never log in online with her credentials. Never dip into the money she’d stashed.

Never pick up her cat from the place where she’d boarded him months ago.

Stupid cat. She never should’ve adopted him in the first place. She wasn’t the kind of person who could love another being—whatever it was. She barely cared about that cat.

April felt the tear trace its way down her cheek.

She sniffed and swiped it gone, cleaning out her locker. Pulling on a hoodie so that she could cover her hair and try to get warm. Hopefully. Maybe it was a pipe dream that things would ever get better. But if she didn’t try, she might as well be dead.

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